Budget crunch hits Florida's medical schools

The state leaders who embraced new multimillion-dollar public medical schools in Orlando and Miami insisted their creations would not diminish Florida's investment in existing medical schools.

But two years later, Florida's public university system is losing tens of millions of dollars because of a statewide revenue shortage. And the state's oldest public medical school is in trouble with national accreditors because its state funding has dropped as enrollment climbed - leaving its lecture halls and student clinical facilities overcrowded. As the legislative session nears, UF and University of South Florida officials are lobbying hard to make sure their decades-old medical schools don't suffer so the newer ones can flourish. Read more here.

Comments

The most often used 4-words following a story about any political promise made in Floriduuuuh!

“But two years later”

Yes, yes, UF and USF. Got to beat that competition.

Does Florida still not have reciprocity with medical boards in other states? If that is the case, why not change that and let out of state docs practice here w/o going through all the hurdles and the doctor shortage is solved. Let other states pay for our docs and we won't need all these duplicate medical schools.

Applying for a medical license isn't the problem. It's having residency slots in the state, and trying to recruit trained physicians who are wary of Florida's enormous med mal rates.

Why can't other facilities provide residency slots? Do they have to be at medical schools?

It costs ~$100K a year to train each resident physician. Medicare pays for most of this, but they've stopped funding any new residency slots because it's so expensive.

Where's John Thrasher ?